


To the Lovers, To Make Much of Time

by Spazzo47



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Newsroom Fanfiction Challenge 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 02:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21153806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzo47/pseuds/Spazzo47
Summary: For LilacMermaid's OCtober, 2015 challenge Take Any Favorite Line From the Show and Turn It on it's Head.Mac reflects as she waits for Will to come out from his incarceration.





	To the Lovers, To Make Much of Time

**Author's Note:**

> The line is from when Mac told Jim to "Gather Ye Rosebuds" in Blackout Part 2 and then yelled at him for getting it wrong in "The Greater Fool". 
> 
> The poem is from Robert Herrick, who wrote _To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time_
> 
> And the dedication is to my good friend Dave who lost his battle with cancer last weekend. He spent his life as a hero. Six years ago he married the woman he loved and from what I observed, he made much of time, he just didn't have enough of it. He was a father figure to several of us and one of the people I looked up to in my writing.

“Gather ye rosebuds, while ye may.”

Mac remembered giving that advice to Jim one day when she wanted him to pursue happiness with Maggie. But as she waited for her husband to make his way out of the prison complex, the poem took on a new meaning. 

_Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,_

_Old Time is still a-flying;_

_And this same flower that smiles today_

_Tomorrow will be dying._

A poem, titled for virgins, obviously is about embracing youth and pursuing the future. But the warning is about what happened today. The fact that one day we will all die. 

She got out of the car, wondering what she would say, how she would tell the man she loves that his father figure's flower has died. 

_The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun_

_The higher he’s a getting_

_The sooner will his race be run_

_The nearer he’s to setting_

For seven years she was in love with this man. She didn’t realize it for the first year. The next year was pure bliss, life the way she always imagined. The next four and a half were spent chasing the seemingly impossible. So much time wasted. Time they will never get back. One mistake that somehow he allowed to be redeemed. But now with a reminder that someday it will end. Someday it won’t be Nancy crying at her husband’s bedside, it’ll be Mac at Will’s. 

_That age is best which is the first_

_When youth and blood are warmer_

_But being spent, the worse, and worst_

_Times still succeed the former_

She should be happy, they _did_ find their way back to each other. They _have_ started the rest of their lives. But seeing Charlie lying there, it’s the bucket of cold water to bring her back to the reality of their life. It’s the good and the bad. The better and the worst. The richer and poorer. The death do they part. It’s all here in this moment as Will walks out of the Manhattan Detention Center. 

_Then be not coy, but use this time,_

_And while ye may, go merry,_

_For having lost but once your prime,_

_You may forever tarry_

This won’t be the passionate reunion of new lovers. The hope she had for Jim when she quoted the poem for him. William Duncan and Mackenzie Morgan let their best years get past them. They probably missed those before they met. She could look on the bright side and realize that they have many years in front of them. Most likely. But Charlie’s “glorious lamp of heaven” has set. This isn’t a time to celebrate their life together, though they will have time for that. First they have to mourn. 


End file.
